Two Research Studies, One Conversation: Youth, Power and Political Change in the Sahel and Sudan
How are communities and youth-led organizations navigating political transformation, shifting geopolitical alliances, and humanitarian crises? What can locally led initiatives teach us about development, governance, and democratic participation?
Join us for the launch of two research publications exploring these questions through case studies from the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) and Sudan:
First Research Study: Re-Envisioning Democratic Participation: A Case Study of the Sudanese Resistance Committees and Emergency Response Rooms
Second Research Study: Navigating Change: Youth Perspectives on Development and Geopolitical Shifts in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)
Through these two studies, we seek to center perspectives from the Global Majority and contribute to critical conversations on geopolitical change, locally led development, grassroots governance, and democratic participation. Join us to discover the research findings, engage with the questions they raise, and reflect on the role of local actors and youth-led initiatives in shaping political and social futures.
Date & Time: Wednesday, November 11 at 6 PM GMT
Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/bjF6cc-GSxKLhhsYAETJMQ
Scroll down to read the executive summary of each research study.
Research Study 1: Re-Envisioning Democratic Participation: A Case Study of the Sudanese Resistance Committees and Emergency Response Rooms
Executive Summary:
Since the outbreak of the war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in 2023, Sudan has plunged into a severe humanitarian crisis characterised by mass civilian casualties, large-scale displacement, the disruption of essential services and very limited humanitarian assistance. As the conflict approaches its fourth year, several international organizations are warning about a high risk of famine in the country, affecting millions of Sudanese. Despite these circumstances, Sudanese communities have developed and sustained locally rooted forms of collective action that challenge the assumption that crisis-affected populations are primarily dependent on external and foreign humanitarian intervention.
Building on scholarship as well as qualitative interviews conducted with Sudanese youth and civil society leaders, this research situates the RC’s and ERR’s within broader debates on decolonial governance and humanitarian action. It tries to understand these initiatives as forms of grassroots governance that became alternatives to state-centric understandings of organization and humanitarian action. This research aims to move beyond the normative framework of viewing Sudanese as people with a constant need for international aid and interventions, and rather highlights the role played by local and youth-led initiatives, whose participation demonstrates the capacity of local actors to organize, make collective decisions, distribute resources, and respond to community needs under conditions of extreme political and humanitarian uncertainty.
Overall, the main finding of this research is that democratic participation and governance can be practiced outside formal state institutions. By situating the RC and ERR’s role and importance within the overall context of Sudan, the research reaches the conclusion that these structures represent a continuation of Sudan’s political and collective action. Additionally, by diving deep into the RC and ERR’s internal structure, the research explains that their horizontal and non- hierarchical structure reflects a sort of rejection of successive authoritarian regimes, allowing communities to organize outside conventional state hierarchies. Furthermore, the research stresses the vital role of both Sudanese youth and women, showing that they’re not passive victims of conflict. In fact, it has been observed that the main drivers of both the RC and ERR’s have been the youth, essentially through community organising and emergency response. Similarly, women played a significant role through participation in sustaining humanitarian response, though the gendered gap between participation and leadership remained present. Lastly and most importantly, the research finds that locally rooted humanitarian structures can provide effective forms of collective care, even in conditions of state absence or severe institutional weakness. Overall, this research underscores the effectiveness and importance of non-state initiatives, such as the RC and ERR, and contributes to a broader re-envisioning of democratic participation beyond formal state institutions, especially in a context largely characterized by the absence of a centralized government and state. The research concludes with a set of recommendations for new research aimed at consolidating and strengthening the role of the ERR’s in supporting the people of Sudan as an alternative structure beyond the formal state.
Research Study 2: Navigating Change: Youth Perspectives on Development and Geopolitical Shifts in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)
Executive Summary:
The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – has undergone a profound geopolitical realignment since 2023. The three military-led governments have distanced themselves from several traditional Western partners, formally withdrawn from ECOWAS and strengthened relationships with other international actors, including Russia. These changes have unfolded alongside persistent conflict, displacement, economic pressures and significant humanitarian needs, reshaping the political, financial and operational environment in which civil society organizations work. Yet much of the discussion surrounding this transformation has focused on geopolitics, security and relations between states, with less attention paid to how these changes are experienced by the youth-led organizations working directly with communities. This research seeks to contribute to filling that gap. It centres the experiences of youth-led civil society organizations in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and looks at how geopolitical and funding shifts are affecting their operating environment, how organizations are adapting and what these changes reveal about the future of locally led development in the AES. The research combines a review of existing literature with two semi-structured interviews with civil society leaders in Burkina Faso and Niger and responses from three civil society organizations in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Given the small sample and the challenges of recruitment in the current regional context, the findings are not intended to be statistically representative or generalizable to the AES population as a whole. Rather, they offer insights into the lived experiences and perspectives of a small number of participants involved, providing a qualitative scope into how geopolitical shifts are perceived on the ground as well as the different adaptation strategies that our participants and their organizations have had to adopt.